Breakthrough cable opens door to global HTS market

HTS cable is not only much smaller but also far more energy efficient than conventional copper wire.

In this latest breakthrough, IRL’s high temperature superconducting team has come up with a process to turn fragile HTS wire into robust cable and open the way for the wider application of HTS technology in industry.

IRL has partnered with major cable manufacturer, General Cable New Zealand to form a new joint venture company, to be known as General Cable Superconductors Limited. The new company will firstly scale-up the HTS cable process and test it on the market before producing the cable commercially.

A prototype cable manufacturing operation is being developed at IRL’s  Gracefield Research Centre while the product development and ultimate high volume manufacturing will be undertaken at General Cable’s factory in  Christchurch.

A number of New Zealand companies have also contributed components to the development of the prototype cable manufacturing machines, particularly D C Ross, a leading-edge Dunedin-based company who have designed and fabricated sophisticated tool pieces for the cutting machinery.

Campbell Whyte, Chief Executive of General Cable Asia Pacific, says commercialisation of the new cable has the potential to create a significant global market.

“The development process will see General Cable invest at least NZ$2.4 million over the next three  one of the most significant steps we have taken in more than 60 years of designing and manufacturing products that we all use and benefit from every day, and one of national and international importance.”

High temperature superconducting technology has huge potential in the 21st century. Some estimates suggest the international market in superconducting wire alone will be worth more than $US20 billion by 2020.

The challenge with the technology has always been that many applications require not just the currently used single wire, but a collection of wires or cabling
which will operate not only with AC power (the type of electricity most of the world uses domestically and in industry) but also with large DC currents.

The technology around the new cable involves cutting HTS tape in ribbon form to be stacked, cabled and encapsulated in a way that reduces electrical loss and thus producing a low-AC–loss HTS cable.

The cable will be extremely valuable in very high-current rated devices such as large generators, transformers and motors and also in devices operating with AC current such as some magnets and induction heaters.

HTS technology has distinct advantages over conventional conducting materials in that it is vastly more energy efficient and equipment using the technology can be made smaller and lighter, with up to 50% less electricity loss and lower maintenance requirements.

One of the customers for the HTS wire has been HTS-110^[?] Ltd – an IRL spin-off company specialising in complex magnets for scientific and industrial applications. Chief Executive, Donald Pooke says the new cable will open up a whole new range of products for HTS-110 in devices for the electricity industry and for large or rapid-cycling magnets.

“HTS-110 is already developing HTS AC machines to meet customer demand, but there are limits to what can be achieved with existing conductor packaging,” he says.

“The IRL cabled conductor will allow device performance to be taken to new levels, and this means wider markets and greater commercial opportunities for us and for New Zealand.”